The Anambra State chapter of United Progressive Party, UPP, has berated the decision of South East governors to intervene
in the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu. Recall that South-East governors had on Sunday in a meeting in Enugu said they would meet President Muhammadu Buhari to demand the release of Kanu.
However, UPP, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Uche Amaku, described the action of the governors as a belated action of people fighting for their political future and not that of Kanu.
The statement reads, “As a political party we do not know how to tell the rudderless Southeast governors good morning in the evening of Kanu’s travails because we do not know where the governors have been all this while even when one of them collaborated with security personnel to undermine the rights of IPOB members.
“It is on record that a member of UPP, Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo, was the first Igbo leader to bring the injustice against Kanu and IPOB to the public domain, especially at a time when none of the governors or political leaders could mention the word Biafra.
“Using the platform of his popular weekly phonein radio programme on Solid FM, Okonkwo had called the bluff of the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), by placing the issues of IPOB’s agitation and protests against Kanu’s illegal detention on the front burner of public discourse and consciousness.
“They are not deceived by the empty promises of Southeast governors most of whom got into office through a debatable electoral popularity, most especially when they show manifest disconnect with the aspirations of the masses.
“We wish to place it on record that the same governors rejected the leadership of the lone All Progressives Congress (APC), even so would the party lose the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State as a pay back to President Muhammadu Buhari for his unbridled disdain for Southeast and Ndigbo.
“Interestingly the Southeast Based Civil Society groups, led by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) have documented the unconscionable killings of young men who were engaged in religious activities dedicated to the remembrance of past heroes that lost their lives during the civil war and in various massacre of Igbos.
“Consequently, UPP believes that no matter how much they try, Southeast governors cannot rewrite the ugliness of recent history, particularly their indifference to killings of Igbos by security personnel and herdsmen.”
